Program Calendar (2017/18)PHIL-180 - The Search for Meaning

Description: This course explores the question of meaning in life, especially in the modern setting. The disintegration of externally-provided meanings and the proposition of a universe without objective value, poses specific issues and questions for individuals: Where can meaning be found? Is meaning merely subjective? What role does God, religion, spirituality, nature, science and society play? After examining the philosophical context which structures the question of modern meaning, we explore diverse solutions to it (religious, spiritual, atheistic etc). Sources include Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Tolstoy, Camus, Sartre, Freud, Jung, Viktor Frankl, Bertrand Russell and others.